Yucca Day

Today was simply very hard.Started with a decent breakfast but for the second day running no orange juice.I asked the waitress if I could buy a glass,to be told there was none in the hotel ! I suspect there was more to it than that.Cool when we set off and pretty flat,but heating up rapidly.We spent most of the first 40K sitting on Barry's wheel( Barry joined the tour in Santa Fe)he went at a very good pace for Elizabeth.The road we followed all day was beautifully quiet and in places spectacularly beautiful.all along the road side were Yucca plants just coming into full flower as well as an assortment of other wild flowers.

The countryside was wide open plains with cows and horses scattered sparsely.

There were some magnificent rocky outcrops  and a superb descent ,fast with sweeping bends that did not necessitate braking.My maximum speed 76.4Kph,could have done better.

After the first refreshment stop we rode with Bill and Linda,until the descent separated us-Linda does not like descending,so I have christened here Thibault Pinot.She climbs very well but like Thibault thinks too much about the potential for disaster on the way down.She likes the analogy and even searched TP on

the internet last night.Just as we set off with B&L the road took a turn so we were heading south into an ever increasing southerly wind.Was a struggle to make decent headway,but after about 10 Kms the road slowly swung back to heading east and so we only had to cope with the crosswind.There were two hard but reasonably short climbs today and a myriad of rollers.Sadly one of the climbs came with 10 Kms to go and as the temperature was 36°C by then it proved taxing to us all.Worse was to come as we crested the hill expecting to roll into town ,the road turned back to south,the wind was by now very strong and our pace over the last 10Kms very slow,even funereal.
 But we made it-a fantastic ride for Elizabeth in the heat,her bete noir.109 miles ,giving us a current total of 1123.3 miles or 1807 Kms,and 43692 feet climbed.Now for a well earned dinner